Review: "The Circle" with Tom Hanks and Emma Watson

by Eric Blume

Director James Ponsoldt’s film version of the Dave Eggers novel The Circle features big ideas, a pulsating relevance, and ideal casting in its leading actress:  so why doesn’t it work? 

Eggers’ tale of a typical young American girl (Emma Watson) who gets a job at a Google-like tech company called The Circle, and promotes herself into living a life that’s “transparent” on-camera 24/7, has its finger on the pulse of our current concerns on social media, connectivity, and privacy...

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Hello, Dollies... it's the Tony Nominations for 2017

by Nathaniel R

Oh hello Tony*, well hello Tony. It's so nice to have you back where you belong...

*Short for Antoinette, don'cha know

Christopher Jackson (Hamilton's original "George Washington") and musical comedy genius Jane Krakowski, both nominees last season, announced the 2017 Tony nominations this morning. Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 leads the pack with 12 nominations with Hello Dolly! close behind with 10. It's usually an original musical that leads. That's a result of the built-in advantage of having more categories devoted to them. Musicals have all the same categories as the plays but also choreography, orchestrations, score, and book. Musical revivals don't ever qualify for all four of those extra musical categories but sometimes two of them. A Dolls House Part 2 leads the original play nominees with 8 nominations and August Wilson's Jitney and Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes lead the play revivals with 6 bids each.

The nominees are...

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First Look: London's "Angels In America"

Chris here

While we will be discussing Tony nominations in the morning, there's also some excitement going on across the pond: the first London revival of Angels in America. Any revisit to Tony Kushner's masterpiece merits our highest enthusiasms, so let's pore over the first photos of the National Theatre production!

That's Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn to your left, a casting choice that I still argue is somewhat strange. However if there's a few necessary things Lane brings to the table, it's 1) his towering stage presence in roles that could swallow lesser actors whole and 2) impeccable comic chops - in Kushner's own notes, the play dies if its humor gets ignored.

If nothing else, it should be a small thrill to see a legend try to stretch their range onstage.

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Beauty vs Beast: Monkey Business

Jason from MNPP here for another round of "Beauty vs Beast" - today is the 86th anniversary of the grand opening of the Empire State Building, aka the most famous building in the world. And so in its honor we're finally tackling the movie that not only birthed its legend but also gave this series its name...

"It was beauty killed the beast."

The Empire State Building was opened on May 1st 1931. President Hoover pushed a button in the White House in DC and the lights to the tower in NYC flicked on for the first time. Just under two years later the movie King Kong would be released (director Merian Cooper supposedly came up with the idea of the plane battle at its top), immediately branding the iconic skyscraper and its most famous big monkey occupant - and his little blonde friend (Fay Wray) - onto every human brain, and forever thereafter.

PREVIOUSLY Last week's contest faced down the mother-daughter duo of Postcards From the Edge and once again proved you should never bet against Meryl Streep - she stomped right over birthday gal Shirley MacLaine with 61% of your vote. Although forever1267 really summed up my own thoughts on the question:

"Where is the "Both" button?"

Prime for May - Screengrab Roulette

A new month, a smattering of titles freshly available to stream for free at home, provided you have certain subscriptions. Let's play screengrab roulette. The following images are what came up (no cheating!) when I blind "scrolled" these newly streaming films on Amazon Prime. I only allow myself a second spin if the image is a complete blur or contains something really upsetting/violent [Complete list of titles is after the jump]

All extras, keep eating the oysters or you will be shot and killed!

Cecil B DeMented (2000)
This is the John Waters movie with the biggest divide for me between how much I love the concept (a guerilla filmmaking unit kidnapping an A list actress and forcing her to star in their film) and what I think of the actual movie. But, damn, Alicia Witt was on comic fire in this movie as "Cherish". It's clear that Melanie Griffith who headlines had seen Serial Mom (1994) and thought 'I could do that!' Only, she couldn't. I forgot how many stars were in this before they broke out: Adrian Grenier, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Michael Shannon! 

I want you to listen to me, child. You need to turn around and get yourself on home.

Winter's Bone (2010)
Dale Dickey was so damn great in this movie, wasn't she?

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